The Council of Europe's Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) claims that the members of a family who were being deported from Finland had been forcibly sedated by Finnish officials for their flight out of the country.

   

According to the committee, all of the members of the family were given injections of sedatives and neuroleptic drugs before boarding the plane.

   

Neuroleptics are mainly used in the treatment of certain mental disorders.

The CPT reports that the drugs

were administered against the will of the people involved, and without proper medical examinations. Two of those who were drugged were underage children.

   

The data for the report was collected during a visit to Finland in September.

   

According to its preliminary report, the committee has documentary evidence of the incident. Nevertheless some Finnish officials are finding it difficult to believe that the report could be true.

One of the sceptics

is Per Ehrsten of the police section of the Ministry of the Interior.

   

Ehrsten says that Finnish police officers would not administer injections to anyone, and that doctors would always be used for any injections.

   

Professor Hannu Lauerma, head physician of the Prison Mental Hospital in Turku, notes that giving neuroleptics to a non-psychotic person would constitute abuse. He says that he would be very surprised if police had such drugs in their possession.

At the Ministry of Justice

, top official Ulla Mohell is also surprised at the revelations. However, she notes that the CPT has documentary evidence to back up its claims.

   

"The committee would never put unsubstantiated information into its report. This information apparently is true", Mohell points out.

   

She says that during the visit to Finland the committee split into two groups and moved around the country freely and independently. Its members met with many people, both state officials and representatives of human rights organisations.

   

The committee's reports are confidential, unless the country concerned authorises their publication. Finland has agreed to the publication of the report, as it did on two previous occasions - 1992 and 1998. Mohell notes that Sweden is the only other country to allow the publication of a preliminary CPT report.

The Ministry of Justice

reported on the committee's preliminary findings on Tuesday last week. However, the ministry did not mention the allegations of drugging the deportee family, although the criticism involving that incident was clearly the most serious allegation against Finland.

   

Ulla Mohell insists that there was never any intention to keep the event secret.

   

Finland has published the committee's preliminary findings - a move which is considered somewhat unusual.

   

Mohell says that she hopes that the incident will lead to public debate in Finland.

The committee calls the action

of Finnish officials in the incident "totally unacceptable", and urges Finland to rapidly draw up detailed guidelines on the use of force in the deportation of foreigners.

   

The preliminary report does not give any details of the alleged incident; there is no indication of when or where it took place, the size or nationality of the family in question, or who made the decision to administer the drugs.

   

The CPT says that it will give more details in its final report scheduled for publication next spring.

Finland's Minority Ombudsman

Mikko Puumalainen says that there have been other situations in which medical circumstances preceding a deportation from Finland have been called into question.

   

For instance, there have been cases in which women in an advanced state of pregnancy have been deported by plane.